The Last Battle is the last book in the Chronicles of Naria and tells of the end of Narnia and the afterlife of Narnians. Some have said that it tells us something about the Eschatology of C.S. Lewis. With this in mind, I have written an analysis of the book in an attempt to examine how it aligns with Biblical references to eschatology and, if possible, assess Lewis’s own eschatological perspective.
Jay Adams on reconciling God and evil.
Simply this: God controls all things, even the existence and activity of evil.
We must remove the word “allows” when speaking of God and evil. He doesn’t merely allow evil to occur. If so, there would be another power, or force, in the universe as great as (or nearly so) as God. It is a force wanting to express itself in various evil ways, but must seek permission from God to do so. So when evil occurs, God has given way to this force and allows it to have its way .
But God is in control of all things. What does that really mean? Think about it—who is the force that determines if and when evil occurs-for His own purposes? There is no second god-like force; He is the sole force in the universe. All evil is according to His determinate purposes—always for some good purpose. God doesn’t allow evil; He has planned all good and evil. Actually, all the “evil” we talk about today is actually a good that we shall someday see to be such. God doesn’t allow it—He foreordains it.
“Each of the faculties of your soul has duties before God. The mind is the sentinel, commanded to watch carefully over the soul by questioning, assessing, and making judgments: ‘Will this please God?’ ‘Is this according to God’s Word?’ If the mind determines that an action is right the affections should then fall in line and desire, long for, and cling to that which the mind said was good. Last, the will puts the soul into action, carrying out what the mind said was good and the affections hungered for.” (p56)
Via Herding the Elephants | The Cripplegate
“With all the digital ink that’s been spilled surrounding The Elephant Room 2, it’s been difficult (and a bit wearisome!) trying to keep up with everything. I thought that I would give it my best shot to corral some of the most helpful, and some of the most telling, commentary on the whole situation into a single spot.”
If you haven’t been keeping up with what has been happening with T.D. Jakes and the Elephant Room, it is worth at least being aware of the issues. This post is good for summarizing it all down into something bite sized that the average person should be able to consume.
The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe is the second book chronologically in the Chronicles of Narnia (although it was the first book published). It traces the discovery of the magical world of Narnia by the Pevensies not long after the beginning of World War two.
The youngest, Lucy discovers a magical Wardrobe and hides in it during a game. She discovers that it is actually a gateway to another world. Eventually her brothers and sister also enter the “country in the wardrobe”[i] and discover that Narnia has been expecting them for many long years and that are destined to rule Narnia as kings and queens. Read more »
I’ve previously expressed my reservations about theistic evolution. Recently, I was interested to hear some new reasoning against it in this interview with Jay Richards
Jay Richards (who co-wrote the Privileged Planet) has recently edited a book (God and Evolution) dealing explicitly with theistic evolution. While I haven’t yet read the book (although it looks quite good), I listened to this short interview with him in which he gives a number of reasons. Read more »
From “Instruments in the redeemers hands” by Paul Tripp, p39-41 (the entire book is assigned reading for this week).
In explaining Genesis 1:26-28 Tripp makes the point that there is something unique about God stopping and actually speaking to the two humans he had just created. He hadn’t done this with other creatures; for previous creatures he merely rested briefly and moved on. But with man, God stops to tell man something -why? Read more »
Just a quick thought from a reading I did last week for one of my courses.
Often the fact that God seeks His own glory is used as an example by unbelievers of God being less than perfectly good because he is self-seeking. However, the concept presented by the word of God is that the Trinity is a key part of this equation, and by understanding the role of each member of the trinity we can see that while the Godhead rightly seeks the glory of the Godhead, each member of the trinity is actually not self-seeking.
According to the Bible, the Father seeks the glory of the Son (Matt 17:5), the Son seeks the glory of the Father (John 17:1, 4, 6) and the Holy Spirit bears witness to the Son and seeks the Son’s glory (John 15:26, 16:14). This is given as an example to us, that is clearly explained multiple times in scripture in the form of the “one another” statements (there are at least 31 of these) of the New Testament which are applied to a wide variety of contexts from our homes and marriage to work and social engagements.
To see a few of the one anothers, take a look at Rom 12:10, 1 Cor 12:25, Eph 4:25, 32, Col 3:13, 16, 1 Thess 5:11, 13, 15, 1 Peter 4:9-10, 5:5, 14.
I’ve been doing a homiletics class over the last seven or eight weeks. I’ve preached twice during it and have received valueable feedback both times. I’m grateful for the opportunity to hone my speaking ability and how I handle the word of God.
While the first sermon wasn’t worth putting up here, the second one was better, so here it is. The title is “Justification by works is saving faith” and it is based on James 2:21–26.
I know there are some who watch this blog who would like to know more about how we get the Bible in English. There are also one or two who might just be interested in the latest edition of the NIV and how it has changed and how it stacks up – particularly after the TNIV issues.
Noted Translater and NT Greek expert Daniel Wallace has written up a four part series on his blog that goes through a little bit of English Bible history and then looks at the strengths and weaknesses of the NIV2011 translation.
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